Lobstermen snap back at PETA after video claims cruelty

Tuesday

Sep 24, 2013 at 12:41 PMSep 24, 2013 at 12:46 PM

YORK, Maine — The head of the state and local lobstermen's associations have added their voices to that of the commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources in condemning lobster cruelty claims by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Susan Morse

YORK, Maine — The head of the state and local lobstermen's associations have added their voices to that of the commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources in condemning lobster cruelty claims by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA made the claims last week, after releasing a video reportedly taken at Linda Bean's Maine Lobster in Rockland. The video showed a process in which raw People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, their shell-less bodies left wriggling. The process violates the state's cruelty-to-animals law, according to PETA, which filed a complaint asking for criminal charges against the seafood processor. PETA also claimed the treatment of crabs at the plant was cruel.

Bean is the granddaughter of the L.L. Bean founder.

Spokesmen for three local lobster businesses contacted said they did not want to comment as they did not want PETA shining a spotlight on them. However, they said local lobster wholesalers are too small to use the more expensive lobster processing equipment targeted by PETA last week.

The animal rights group said Bean and processors should use a stun gun or hydrostatic pressure — both kill the crustaceans — before dismembering lobsters.

The PETA video is “just another publicity stunt to raise money,” said David Cousens, president of the Maine Lobstermen's Association. “This is the same group that wanted to open a lobster empathy center in Maine a few years back. They aren't to be taken seriously.”

Mike Sinclair, head of the York Lobstermen's Association, called the video “sensationalism” and PETA's complaint, “frivolous.”

Lobsters are food, Sinclair said, with the same capacity for feeling as an insect.

“I'm sure they feel something,” he said. “They're not the same as a human being.”

University of New Hampshire biology professor Win Watson agreed with Sinclair's comparison of lobsters to insects. Watson has expertise in neurobiology and lobsters.

“I think they wriggle around because their nervous system has been damaged,” Watson said.

However, crustaceans are animals and the nervous system of most animals is similar, he said.

“We'll never know for sure,” he said when asked if lobsters feel pain. “I feel they don't like being dropped in boiling water,” he said, though the term “discomfort” is probably more appropriate than pain, he said.

“On the flip side, they eat each other,” he said. “They're not very nice.”

The process at Linda Bean's Maine Lobster complies with state and federal laws and regulations including Maine's animal-welfare statute, according to Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the state Department of Marine Resources.

On Sept. 17 Keliher said, “It's the position of the Maine Department of Marine Resources that statements made today by PETA are nothing more than another disingenuous attempt to advance their agenda and negatively impact Maine's most important coastal industry and the economy it supports.”

Last year Maine lobster brought more than $340 million in revenue to the state, according to Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association.

PETA had “an extremist agenda,” she said.

Knox County District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau and Rockland Police Chief Bruce Boucher have said they are reviewing the complaint to decide how to proceed, according to Stephen Betts of the Bangor Daily News.

As of Tuesday, the complaint was still under investigation with district attorney's office, according to PETA spokeswoman Shakira Croce.

PETA's complaint applies only to those companies processing frozen raw lobster tails, according to a local processor who did not wish to be identified, saying he wanted no involvement with the animal rights group.

Most York facilities sell whole lobsters or shucked lobster meat from crustaceans that have been steamed, he said.

Frozen raw lobster tails are available in some stores and are sold to markets such as cruise ships that want to offer a surf and turf special without dealing with live lobster, he said.

The dismembering of tails was illegal in Maine until July 2010, when the state changed what was called the “lobster mutilation law.” Previous to 2010, tails could not be taken off of raw lobsters because the state then had no way to measure its legal length. The law was changed as it put Maine at a competitive disadvantage with Canadian processors.

Watson said before boiling lobsters alive, as is the standard procedure for cooking them, he puts them in the freezer to put them in a drowsy state.

Lobsters are on Maine license plates, he said, with nothing more closely associated with the state than the red crustaceans.

“I'm not a PETA fan,” he said. “(But) try to be a little bit humane with your state symbol.”

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